Power station gets £35m investment

A £35m (€52.3m) investment is being made in the Kilroot power station in Co Antrim to enable it to meet tough new EU environmental emission regulations, it was announced today.

Around 200 construction jobs will be created during the work, which is scheduled to be completed late in 2007 and an additional eight permanent jobs will be added to the 120-strong workforce running the power station.

The EU environmental directive meant that Kilroot had to forge ahead with modifications to reduce emissions or announce by June 30 that it would shut down by 2015 at the latest.

Shane Lynch, managing director of AES Kilroot in Carrikfergus said: “AES Kilroot is planning to comply with new EU environmental regulations, by this substantial investment, thus creating a cleaner power plant that will be significantly less expensive than a new replacement plant”.

He added: “We are very pleased with this opportunity to continue to serve Northern Ireland with cleaner electricity and to maintain fuel diversity.”

The company pointed out that had they decided to opt for closure, consumers in the North would have been forced to foot the bill for the installation of a new power station that would have been significantly more expensive that keeping their plant open.

Kilroot is a duel coal and oil fired power station which supplies the North with around one third of its electricity.

By next year it will be the only major non-gas electricity supplier in the North, and the owners say their decision to continue significantly strengthened Northern Ireland’s security of supply and limited the impact of gas price volatility on the cost of electricity.

The work to be carried out will involve the installation of Flue-gas Desulphurisation equipment which will reduce sulphur dioxide emissions by 75%, said the company.

It would allow Kilroot to continue serving the North until 2024 under its contracts with Northern Ireland Electricity.